I don’t think “content” per say is the actual problem, but rather the mechanics associated with and between said content which is the true issue.
For example:
- Wing Missions – These were a great idea which were mostly well done by Frontier, but instead of adding new wing mission types to an already full mission board they should have simply converted the existing missions into “shareable missions” which could generate over a wide range of parameters and accommodate anybody from a solo player to a full wing of four. The rewards would be set for the amount of work required, so either a pilot can try it solo and get a large payout or a wind can do it together and divide the rewards between them. Wing missions as they exist today are a great idea terribly executed.
- Mining – This is actually a well done feature right now, but the mechanics around mining could use some improvements. Generate mining missions for more ore types, increase the profit per hour rate of ice mining, implement “goldrush” system states into refinery systems which could boost mining demand and profits immensely for a short time, thereby giving miners reasons to roam about the bubble hunting lucrative mining spots.
- Combat Zones – I’d like to see more variety to CZ’s which pop up in systems at war. Stuff like a CZ centered around a megaship or an orbital outpost, even CZ’s where the goal is to assault megaships or outposts. More capital ship combat too, and even a mechanic where you can “win” a CZ, providing players with short term goals when blasting ships away.
- Bounty Hunting – Some new mechanics are desperately needed here. Better ways to hunt down criminals, especially wanted commanders, would be fantastic. Improve bounty hunting missions too, give them more random variety.
- Trading – The new 3.0 tools were very nice, but trading could use some more interesting mechanics too. The shareable mission revamp I described above could greatly improve trading. Also implement hireable NPC wingmen so traders can hire combat escorts to protect them.
- CQC – This was honestly not a terrible idea, it was just poorly implemented as a completely separate feature. Bring CQC into the game itself as a “Galactic VR Sport”, the most popular esport of the galaxy. Pilots can easily queue up from their ships UI panel and telepresence into the VR CQC game, where they could compete in seasonal arena combat, complete with competitive ladders, ranks, and quarterly reward tiers to strive for.
- Exploration – Players have an entire galaxy to explore with billions of systems, yet nothing to actually find out there. See my signature for a lot of ideas on how to solve that, but suffice it to say that the procedural galaxy needs to have procedural content coupled with improved exploration mechanics in order to provide some honest to God Gameplay to exploration.
Elite has “content”, it just needs better mechanics to interact with said content. This is what a lot of people had hoped Beyond would be doing, instead we got the Tech Brokers of 3.0 with some of the best content yet worst mechanics of the past four years. This is why a lot of people have become vocally negative since 3.0, even more so than usual, even some of the normal white knights. It’s the realization that Frontier is still making the same mistakes, and that they just might not truly understand what the core problem really is. Because if they did understand then how could they go live with the mess which were the Tech Brokers?
Frontier is great at making “content”, they are just terrible at giving it purpose or meaning or including satisfying mechanics along with that content. It often feels like they
look at their own game but don’t actually
play it.
